Year: 2015

Generating humour in the classroom

Kamakshi Balasubramanian

When one talks about using humour in the classroom, the onus of being the source of humour automatically falls on the teacher. But what if we tell you that this needn’t always be the case? You can facilitate the generation of humour in the classroom, which will come collectively from the children. Read on to find out how.

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Adding fun to learning

S Upendran

Laughter is never far away from any classroom whether it is between just the children or the teacher and the children. Funny moments during the course of a class definitely add to the learning moment. This teacher shares some such moments from his classroom.

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Chase those fears with the funnies!

Pooja Keshavan Singh

Learning becomes easy when students begin to trust their teachers and lose their fears of certain subjects. And what better way is there for them to learn to trust you and enjoy what they are learning, than to share with them a joke or two?

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Why we need humour

Vaibhav Devanathan

If you are not convinced about using humour in your classroom, here are some reasons about why you should give its use some serious thought.

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Ha, ha, ho, ho, he, he

In keeping with our cover theme of the month, we asked teachers to share lighter moments from their classrooms with us. From the several responses we received, we feature here a few that had us holding our sides. We hope you enjoy reading these as much as we enjoyed putting them together for you. Trouble in the same cell One day in class, I was narrating the story of Krishna’s birth. I told my students how reacting to a divine prophecy that foretold his death, Kamsa ended up killing seven of Vasudeva and Devaki’s children before Krishna. One bright student put up his hand and asked, “Ma’am why could Kamsa not have imprisoned Devaki and Vasudeva in different cells? Then they would not have had any children! The rest of the students burst out laughing and I found it difficult to control them. Srijaya Char The toilet mystery One day in my senior English class the boys told me to watch a skit they had made on “Who killed Duncan?” They brought in Sherlock Holmes to cross-examine Macbeth. At one stage Holmes says to Macbeth, “Your Majesty, I desire now to interview your royal wife, her majesty the Queen.” To which Macbeth replied, “Sire, she is to the toilet gone.” (In the end they all agreed it was suicide.) Brendan Mac Carthaigh Walking the talk I was co-facilitating a session for 40 principals with my partner who is British. When explaining the purpose of a Learning Walk, he dramatically pulled off his shoe and said, “So this is what I used as my tool! I wore out the leather on the corridors of the school.” Watching the horrified expressions of the principals I realized what they were thinking and rushed to explain that he meant the shoe was used for walking the corridors and not for beating his students with!! Kavita Anand Geometric designs One day I was teaching geometrical shapes in class. As I started talking about two dimensional shapes like triangles, quadrilaterals, and special quadrilaterals like the parallelogram, square, rectangle, rhombus, and kite, I observed some students whispering. I went to them quietly and asked what the matter was. One of the children answered, “Madam, all these shapes are on your saree pallu.”I immediately raised my saree pallu to see and the entire class started searching for the shapes we were learning about. That was indeed a funny moment. As I continued the same lesson the next day, the students said, “Madam you

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Season 1 Episodes

Episode 12: Understanding CPD and Classroom Management Why is Continuous Professional Development (CPD) important? How can we retain good teachers in the classrooms? Can you look at your large classroom as an opportunity? And how soon should we introduce English in our schools? Teacher Plus met with Rod Bolitho, Academic Director at Norwich Institute for Language Education, and Prof. Geetha Durairajan, Professor, Department of Testing and Evaluation, EFL University, Hyderabad for the answers. Episode 11: Tackling learning difficulties These days we are more aware of the learning disabilities that some children may have. We know the different names and to a certain extent what these difficulties are. But how aware are we of learning difficulties in children in our own classes? As teachers how aware should we be of these issues that our students maybe facing? Do we need to be professionally trained to spot learning difficulties or can we look out for certain signs that children with learning difficulties may give away? Once we realize that a certain child maybe facing a problem, are there ways in which we can make the learning process easier for them to the extent that we can as teachers? How do we help? Seetha Anand, Early childhood curriculum developer and Remedial therapist tells teachers of the simple steps they can take to identify and then help children with learning problems. Episode 10: Creating conducive environments for primary school Primary school teachers or caregivers who handle children between the 0-6 age group perhaps have the toughest jobs. These years are extremely crucial in the life of a child; the ‘formative’ years when they are growing both physically and mentally. So how do you take care of these children? Can you teach them? Is the practice of introducing academic learning (including ABC and the numbers) at such a young age advisable? How do our regular practices impact children? How do we improve our skills to take care of them better so that they grow up learning and curious and not stressed? Seetha Anand, Early childhood curriculum developer and Remedial therapist talks to Teaching and Learning Moments with Teacher Plus. Episode 9: Staying motivated Motivation is the most important element that should be part of every teacher’s make up. A demotivated teachers means disinterested students. There will be no learning in the classroom. But then year after year when you have to teach the same textbooks to students who maybe difficult, unwilling, and unruly how does one stay motivated? A teacher

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Building a response to crises

In recent times, there has been an increasing emphasis on schools and teachers to impart life skills or soft skills to children. These include empathy and conflict resolution. Most of the times, these skills are touted as being important in the job market and less about how essential they are in everyday life as well. With a lot of political turmoil happening in countries around us, may be it is time children are taught about interdependence and empathy and to respond to crises with compassion.

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The chalk still rules

Dipankar Bird Chorne
How popular is the blackboard in today’s times versus the smartboard? Do teachers still feel comfortable with a simple chalk and talk lecture? This short article is a mini survey carried out in Kolkata by a student. The findings are interesting.

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Riding and learning on the radio waves

Taijrani Rampersaud
In an era of the Internet and smart phones , does anybody even think of the radio? As a matter of fact, yes. A remarkably inexpensive communication medium, the radio has innumerable uses. Its basic and important characteristic is that it does not have any boundaries. Here is a wonderful article that celebrates the radio and how, even now it can be used as a teaching tool.

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The myth of poor performance

Shubhra Mishra
Making mathematics a part of a child’s life experience is the best math education that can be given. If teachers from government schools throw up their hands and report on the poor performance of the students, can there really be a way forward? This article suggests that the so – called poor performance of children is just a myth, and it is really the teachers who have to be more sensitive towards their students .

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